Interesting Facts about One Direction

One Direction are a band that seemed to literally pop up out of nowhere. One minute they were contestants on the world famous hit TV show The X-Factor back in 2010, and the next minute they were international super stars, with cutie boy-band faces and cheeky-chappy attitudes to match.

Here at HerInterest.com, we decided that it was time to take a closer look and bring you only the very best in facts and truth about the massive hit UK band One Direction!

WATCH ONE DIRECTION – WHAT MAKES YOU BEAUTIFUL HERE.

Let’s start from the beginning…

One Direction are a British band that appeared on the British version of the hit TV show The X-Factor in 2010; the seventh season of the show.

Consisting of five band members, One Direction weren’t originally a band at all – the contestants all applied to be on the show individually, and some of them were actually booted out of the show at one point until Simon Cowell made the genius executive decision to bring them back into the show and push them together into a boy band.

This was possibly one of the smartest decision the show has ever made and now, signed under Simon Cowell’s record labels, Syco Records, as the group hit to amounts of fame that most 19-22 year old boys could only ever dream of.

Let’s meet the band!

Come on ladies – you must know who these cheeky chappies are by now! Let’s introduce the gang!

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Niall Horan

This blue-eyed, blonde haired beauty is Irish, born and bred, and was born September 13th, 1993 in Millingar, County Westmeath in Ireland. Do you want to know a little bit more about this little cutie? Why not follow us while we take a closer look at some of the coolest and most interesting facts about Niall Horan:

He has a brother – he’s older and called Greg.

He is a Virgo – this means he is observant, helpful, precise, reliable and analytical!

His parents, Maura Gallagher and Bobby Horan actually divorced when Niall was five years old.

Niall performed in the school choir!

He has played the guitar since he was a child.

He loves jazz music and sites some of the greats as inspiration to this musical tastes – Michael Bublé, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.

Niall actually confessed to having a bit of a “man crush” on Michael Bublé and has referred to him as an “absolute hero”

He has also said that this perfect woman is Cheryl Cole…. he likes brunettes then!

Niall also loves a bit of the old rock music, saying that he enjoys listening to the music of The Script, Bon Jovi and The Eagles.

His nickname is Nialler.

He once said that he has only ever read book from start to finish and that was “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

His good luck mascot is said to be a pair of white socks.

In December of 2011, Niall opted to have invisible braces on his teeth to try and straighten them out.

His favorite song ever is by Coldplay and is called “Viva La Vida”

Harry Styles is the youngest member of One Direction, and Niall Horan is the second youngest.

He is 5 feet and 7 inches tall.

His first ever The X-Factor audition received glowing responses from judge Louis Walsh and was by Ne-Yo – “So Sick”

Niall Horan seems to have started up some sort of Twitter “Bromance” with Justin Bieber! They were regularly seen tweeting each other! Niall Horan actually sung Justin Bieber’s “Baby” when he supported Lloyd Daniels at Ireland’s Academy 2 – just months before he auditioned for The X-Factor!

He suffers with claustrophobia. This is when you are scared of small and confined spaces.

He is also scared of pigeons. He was once rumored to be dating Demi Lovato and the actress in Skins, Freya Mavor. Apparently he rubbished both of these rumors! Ouch!

If you want to follow him on Twitter, you can do so with Niall Horan’s official Twitter – @NiallOfficial

He currently considered himself to be a “Single Pringle” despite being linked to a number of women recently. There were the rumors that he spent a rather cozy night in with one of the Made in Chelsea stars, Louise Thompson. When asked about these rumors, he simply replied that he was still a “Single Pringle”

There are a couple of other women that he has been reported to “hanging out” with – there was the Irish model Zoe Whelan, plus a presenter called Laura Whitmore. He’s single for now, but who knows how much longer that will last….?

Harry Styles

The youngest member of One Direction, Harry Styles is our personal favorite too! He’s such a little cutie with his floppy brown hair and big, innocent eyes. He seems to be side-stepping the cutie-cute image these days however, with a more rocker appearance and an ever-growing amount of tattoos.

Born on the 1st February in 1994, he was born in Cheshire in England. Now let’s take a look at some interesting facts about Harry Styles:

Another kid with an older sibling, Harry Styles has an older sister called Gemma.

Harry’s parents were divorced when he was still quite young, just like Niall’s too – his mother was called Anne Cox (nee Shelley) and his father was Des Styles. His mother remarried after the divorce.

His star sign is Aquarius and this means he is an extrovert, and outwardly expressive!

Before he starred on The X-Factor, Harry actually had a part-time job in a bakery near to where he lived – W. Mandeville Bakery in Holmes Chapel.

One Direction isn’t the first band that Harry has had the pleasure of performing in. Before OD, he had a band called White Eskimo with three other members – Will Sweeney was the drummer, Nick Clough was the guitarist, and Haydn Morris was the lead guitarist.

Harry has some pretty unique tastes when it comes to music and has professed a love for many different types of music. He loves Elvis and never tires of saying so. He also has a passion for Kings of Leon, Foster People, Coldplay, The Beatles and many more.

Harry says that The X-Factor gave him a confidence for performing that he didn’t have before – thank heavens for that right, ladies?

Harry’s middle name is Edward.

Harry’s first girlfriend was when he was just 12 years old and was called Emilie.

He once professed a love for getting completely naked saying that it made him feel completely “liberating, very free”

He once joked that he had a bit of a “man crush” on Louis Tomlinson – one of his other band mates.

While performing on The X-Factor, Harry had a very public crush on Cheryl Cole, and also with presenter Caroline Flack, whom he later dated.

His favorite song is “Free Falling” by John Mayer.

His second favorite song is Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”

There are only two members within One Direction that have passed their driving test – Louis is one of them and cute little Harry is the second.

Before he became famous on The X-Factor, Harry didn’t actually want to be a singer. He actually wanted to be a lawyer! Cute and with brains – what more could you possibly ask for?

Partial to the older lady, his relationship with Caroline Flack caused an enormous amount of controversy, seeing as she was 8 years older than him. HE did once say that he would never date anyone that was older than his Mama! Bless him!

For the football fans out there, you will be pleased (or displeased) to learn that Harry supports Britain’s Manchester United football club.

He has said that he has two favorite colors – he loves orange and blue.

He has size 10 feet.

He stands at 5 feet and 10 inches tall.

When he has free time, Harry says that he loves to keep fit by playing badminton and tennis.

Secretly, Harry loves chick-flick movies and amongst his favorites, you will find The Notebook, Titanic and also Love Actually.

You may already know that recently, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift broke up. He actually described her as being “a pain in the a**e”!

Taylor Swift isn’t the only one to have a bad review from Harry in the press! Cara Delevingne didn’t escape the harsh words after he was reported to have said he was looking for someone that he ACTUALLY wanted to spend time with. Wow – burn!!!

Did you know that back in 2012, Harry Styles was voted as the 18th Hottest Hunk in Britain’s Heat magazine, and this actually classed him as being hotter than the likes of Justin Timberlake, Robbie Williams, cute Welsh presenter Steve Jones and even Brad Pitt! He certainly got a mention in our Top 100 Hottest Men in the World 2013 Part A. What do you think? Hotter than Justin Timberlake?

Harry has a couple of pretty interesting skills under his belt. Did you know, for example, that he could juggle? What about playing the kazoo? Well, he can do both of these things!

When One Direction’s single “Up All Night” hit the Number One spot in America, he treated himself by buying something big….. It was a mattress! He was reported to have told a British newspaper that he really needed a new one and in his current one, the springs had gone! Now that’s very rock & roll, don’t you think?

Zayn Malik

The rather exotic looking Zayn Malik has a Pakistani father, Yaser and an English mother, Tricia. With two younger and one older sister, he is from Bradford in England, and was born on January 12th, 1993. With beautiful brown eyes and his big brown hair, you can understand his appeal amongst the girls, that’s for sure! Let’s take a look at some interesting facts about Zayn Malik:

Louis is the oldest member of One direction and Zayn Malik is the second oldest.

He once said that Megan Fox was his perfect woman.

Justin Timberlake is his “man crush”

Zayn Malik loves the Harry Potter books!

Despite the fact that Zayn loves sharks, and in particular, hammerhead sharks, he is actually afraid of water – aquaphobia. To be more precise, this means that he has a fear of open spaces of water. We can’t see him swimming with sharks any point soon, that’s for sure!

Not quite as cool as some of his other band members, Zayn Malik actually says that his favorite band of all time is *NSYNC. We know that you love JT, but really, Zayn? *NSYNC?!?

Just like Harry Styles, Zayn’s favorite football team is Britain’s Manchester United!

In Arabic, his last name (Malik) actually means “Chieftain” or “King”

His real name isn’t actually Zayn – it’s Zain. He adopted the “y” in his stage name, thinking that it looked more cool We reckon you’re pretty cool either way, Zayn!

Another One Direction that has a little thing for older women, Zayn actually dated fellow The X-Factor starlet Rebecca Ferguson for around four or five months. It was said that they “drifted apart” – Rebecca was actually 3 years older than Zayn!

His favorite genres of music are R&B, rap and urban styles. He once said that he would love to work with Bruno Mars! We’d love to see a collaboration between Bruno Mars and One Direction! We think the boys should definitely do it!

When he actually performed his first audition on The X-Factor, he wasn’t on the actual TV show. His original audition had to be played on the spin-off show – The Xtra Factor.

Zayn’s favorite song is a classic by Michael Jackson – “Thriller”

While he was starring on The X-Factor, his Grandfather sadly died. He had a tattoo done in his honor with his name, Walter.

Unfortunately for many of us, Zayn Malik is a smoker, although in 2011, he did express his desire to give up the dreaded cigarettes! Go on Zayn – we have faith in you!

In May 2012, Zayn Malik announced his relationship with one of the singers of Little Mix – Perrie Edwards. Sad news for us right, girls?

Zayn’s love life is constantly keeping him in the press. He apparently cheated on Perrie Edwards with an Australian stripper which sparked a media frenzy, and Rebecca Ferguson spoke out about the fact that she had believed Zayn had cheated on her as well. Do we believe it?!

Zayn’s favorite animal is a lion and, just like Harry Styles, he has a love of cats!

To date, Zayn has over 8 tattoos and shows no sign of slowing down.

If you want to follow Zayn Malik, you can get him at Zayn Malik official Twitter @zaynmalik

2010 wasn’t Zayn’s first time heading for world domination via The X-Factor. He had originally tried to audition in 2009; the year before but, due to nerves, he had to pull out. We are sure glad he finally made it!

Liam Payne

Liam James Payne was born in the West Midlands in England on August 29th, 1993. He was actually born three weeks early – we’ll give you that interesting fact for free, to father Geoff and mother Karen. A rather poorly child with regular kidney problems, he used to take as many as 32 injections twice daily to help cope with the pain, and it wasn’t until he reached the age of four, he was routinely in hospital as Doctors weren’t sure what the problem was.

Back to lighter news and let’s look at some of the best interesting facts about Liam Payne:

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Another Virgo in the group (with Niall), Liam is considered to be observant, helpful, analytical and reliable.

He is the middle-man within the group – Harry and Niall are the two boys younger than him, while Zayn and Louis are older.

He once said that his favorite color was purple.

Not quite the toughest movie out there, Liam Payne’s favorite movies are the Toy Story trilogy! Awww! How cute! We’ll watch it with you, Liam!

2010 wasn’t the first time that Liam Payne had been on The X-Factor. In 2009; two years sooner, he actually made it through the first part of auditions, making it to the judge’s houses where he met his end with Simon Cowell. In fact, Simon had mentioned to him that he should come back in two years time, which he did, and that’s when he made it into the massive band One Direction. That’s something we definitely are happy about!

Not quite as cool a “man crush” as the other boys, Liam Payne says that his is with the comedian and funny man, Michael McIntyre. Well that’s not quite what we were expecting!

His female celebrity crush is with Leona Lewis. We understand that, right? She IS amazing!

He has phobias just like the other boys. The only difference with Liam’s is that he is scared of something rather odd. He has an unusual phobia of spoons, which even admits is a bit weird.

His 2010 audition on The X-Factor saw him performing “Cry Me a River” by Justin Timberlake and he actually received a standing ovation from the crowd! Obviously he deserved it! The song was because he had an ex-girlfriend that had cheated on him and once said that the song was his payback to her. We bet she is kicking herself now, that’s for sure! Look what you cheated on, you silly girl!

His bootcamp song of choice was by Oasis – “Stop Crying Your Heart Out”

Just like Niall, Liam has the middle name James.

Danielle Peazer was a backing dancer on the show that made Liam famous in 2010, and he started dating her while he was on the show. It would seem that they are still together! Sad news for us!

He has named two men as the inspiration for his musical life. One of them was Gary Barlow from the amazing British boy band Take That, and the other is Justin Timberlake.

Liam once admitted that he would love to play a practical joke on Simon Cowell. Who wouldn’t?

He has a type when it comes to women – he likes them to have nice eyes and on top of that, he likes his women to still be a bit shy. He is not a fan of over-confident women.

If Liam could interview any celebrity out there, he said it would be Usher.

Sugarscape did a list of the 50 Hottest Males back in 2011 and he came 8th in the poll. The British newspaper also did a poll in the same year and he came in 11th. What do you think? Where do you think he should go?

Due to him being one of the most mature and responsible members of the One Direction group (he doesn’t really drink because of his poorly kidneys) he has earned himself the nickname “Daddy Directioner”

He loves songs by The Script and according to the other band mates, he often sings their songs in the shower!

Liam refers to himself as the clumsiest guy in One Direction!

He’s a bit of a daredevil, it would seem, and back in 2012, Liam and Louis performed a SkyJump from 192 meters off the Auckland’s Sky Tower. To make things even more impressive, David Beckham, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry have done exactly the same jump!

His favorite song is by Michael Bublé – “End of May”

Once the audition part of The X-Factor was over and done with, the betting odds in the UK were very much in his favor. In fact, behind Cher Lloyd who was predicted to be the winner of the show, he was actually coming in at second. This was before the part where they brought back the other four boys and created the band, One Direction, of course!

Liam is 5 foot and 10 inches tall.

His official page on Facebook actually topped 1.4million likes in August 2012. That’s crazy!

He thinks of himself as having the best dance moves in the band – what do you think? Can he out-dance Harry?

Secretly, Liam Payne actually loves the cheesy British group S Club 7. We aren’t sure what we make of this!?

Louis Tomlinson

This cutie was born in South Yorkshire in England on December 24th, 1991! What a great Christmas present – that’s for sure! Born to proud parents Troy Austin and Johanna Poulston, he gained his step-father’s name after his parents split up and his mother remarried at a young age.

With five younger sisters (half-) that he needed to learn how to grow up with, he actually starred in a British TV show called Fat Friends with two of them. He was only an extra, but it was a start in the right direction for the little star!

Now it’s time for us to take a closer look at the coolest interesting facts about Louis Tomlinson:

A typical Capricorn, Louis can be described as slow and steady win an eagerness to win the race. This must have helped him with his career, especially when you take a look at how much of a busy bee this boy has been!

He attended a Barnsley acting school and this helped him to get the role in the BBC drama Waterloo Road as well as a drama film called If I Had You. On top of this, he had a large number of various including working as a waiter in the hospitality suites as Doncaster Rovers – a British football club, and also working in Vue Cinemas!

One of his biggest influences and idols is Robbie Williams. How cool would a collaboration between Robbie and One Direction be?! He also said that Robbie Williams is his “man crush”

He once said that, if he could have any superpower, he would love to be able to fly.

He once said that his favorite music to listen to, and in fact, his favorite band is another British group – The Fray.

If he could date any celebrity female, he says it would be Natalie Portman.

If you want to follow him on Twitter, you can do so at @Louis_Tomlinson

He didn’t always want to be a singer – at one point he actually wanted to be a farmer!

At the moment, Louis is dating a student at Manchester University called Eleanor Calder. They have been together for just over two years and don’t seem to be showing any signs of splitting. That makes us sad, doesn’t it girls? He has also said that he is most definitely a “one-woman man” and definitely would never cheat on his girlfriend. Swoon!

Just like Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber, he’d love to have a pet monkey! So would we!

His favorite color is apparently dark red.

Louis’ middle name is William.

He also supports Manchester United, just like his other band members Harry Styles and Zayn Malik.

In the early part of 2011, Louis actually dressed up as a carrot for one of The X-Factors live gigs! Doesn’t that just make you love him more?!

If he ever has a son, Louis would like to call him either Lucas or Leo.

The food he hates are baked beans.

According to some reports, it can take Louis up to half an hour to get his hair done in the morning. As much as we like a man that likes to look good, could we really compete with someone for bathroom time? Just a bit of food for thought….

He loves surfing and the beach, and he even said that he would like to get married on one some day.Let’s hope his long-term girlfriend feels the same way!

Admitting he is probably one of the worst cooks in the band, he still went on to a British morning TV show alongside Harry Styles to cook!

If you want to date Louis, you need to have two main traits. Firstly you need to have confidence – he likes a confident girl. Secondly, you need to have a great sense of humor. You must be able to make him laugh!

Just in case you wanted to buy him some shoes, he is a size 10.

When Louis is talking to Harry in an indearing manner, he often refers to him as “Pumpkin” – awwww! Isn’t this cute!

Do you love or hate Marmite? Well, Louis loves it, especially on his toast in the morning so you had better get used to it!

Now we’ve met the band members, it’s time to get to know the music of One Direction!

As we have mentioned, One Direction were formed back in 2010 on the seventh season of The X-Factor in Britain. To date, there are two studio albums as well as ten singles that were released, an extended play, two charity singles, ten music videos and a video album. Now that’s pretty impressive for late teens and early twenty-something boys, especially when you consider that this is only the third year that the band has been together.

Together, their good looks, soothing voices and foot-tappingingly cool music has created a MASSIVE fan base all over the world, and when you take a look at what they have managed to achieves so far, it’s not so difficult to understand why.

The Singles & The Albums

It started with “What Makes You Beautiful” back in 2011 where they hit the Number One spot in the UK and number 4 in the US charts. You can see this absolute tune right at the top of this article on the interesting facts about One Direction.

“Gotta Be You” was then released in the same year, hitting the number three spot in the UK and wasn’t released anywhere else.

“One Thing” was possibly the song that started the whole world looking at this amazing band. The song has proven to be the soundtrack for many relationships in all four corners of the globe, yet only hit the number nine spot in the UK. It only got to 29 in the US charts too.

“More Than This” was then released, still in 2011. 86 was the peak chart position in the UK.

The above four songs were all taken from the 2011 album “Up All Night” which consisted of the following songs:

What Makes You Beautiful

Gotta Be You

One Thing

More Than This

Up All Night

I Wish

Tell Me a Lie

Taken

I Want

Everything About You

Same Mistakes

Save You Tonight

Stole My Heart

There was also a bonus album released – the deluxe version, as such, and this added a few additional tracks:

Stand Up

Moments

The 2010 album “Take Me Home” saw the next batch of singles to be released:

“Live While We’re Young” was released in the year that the album was released and peaked at number three in the UK charts and the same spot in the US charts.

“Little Things” was released soon after that and hit number one in the UK and number 33 in the US.

“Kiss You” hit the number nine spot in the UK and 46 in the States.

“One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks)” was a non-single album for charity (Red Nose Day in the UK) and of course, hit the top spot in the UK, hitting the US charts and peaking at number 13.

The album “Take Me Home” also featured the following track list:

Live While We’re Young

Kiss You

Little Things

C’Mon, C’Mon

Last First Kiss

Heart Attack

Rock Me

Change My Mind

I Would

Over Again

Back For You

They Don’t Know About Us

Summer Love

Truly, Madly, Deeply

Magic

Irresistible

One Thing (Live)

I Wish (Live)

There is a third studio album soon to be released, and as far as we are aware, this has not yet been named. This will feature the newest song from the boys – “Best Song Ever” which you can spot here:

WATCH ONE DIRECTION – BEST SONG EVER HERE.

It was the July 2013 GQ interview that One Direction revealed that their third studio album was going to be “heavier” than their previous stuff, seemingly suggesting that the boys are finally coming into their own.

There is no specific date or details for the third album as yet, but as soon as we hear about it, we will let you know, we promise!

The Videos and THE MOVIE!

Oh my God, ladies! One Direction are releasing a movie! That makes us very happy and we would imagine that most girls out there that are One Direction fans are probably waiting with bated breath to see when this will be released as well as how they can get their hands on it. Up until now, there has been one video album from the boys of One Direction – “One Direction: Up All Night – The Live Tour”

According to media rumors, the release date for the movie is going to be announced later on this month but we shall wait, not quite so patiently, to hear when we can rush to the cinemas to buy our tickets. Some media stories have suggested August 29th in the UK and 30th August in the US.

An access-all-areas style movie, we are imagining it is going to be like the Justin Bieber movie which, quite frankly, took over the world. Who knows how big One Direction’s movie will get. All we know is that we are super excited to get the chance to see it!

Interesting Facts about One Direction

Now, to end the One Direction frenzy, we will bring to you the coolest, funniest and most interesting facts about One Direction. The boys – Harry, Zayn, Louis, Liam and Niall have all been featured here, but now it’s time to take a closer look at the band and the boys…. Are you ready?

Harry apparently sleeps naked and one of the other man members actually said that the worst thing about living with him was the parade of girls that make their way in and out of Harry’s bedroom!

Niall is left-handed.

If you wanted to hire One Direction for the night, it would cost you over £21,000! In US money, that would be about $33,000!

One Direction didn’t even win the seventh series of The X-Factor. They actually came third. Do you even know who the winner was of that series?!

Amazon revealed that the 2012 calendar of One Direction was the best-selling calendar OF ALL TIME!

There have been three books released on One Direction to date.

Their biggest inspiration is the British boy band Take That

In 2011, “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction was the third fastest selling single.

The recording contract that they signed after joining with Syco records was worth an impressive £2 million.

The band actually launched limited edition mobile phones – The Nokia C2-02 and the Nokia C3-00.

“Up All Night” was the 16th fastest selling single of the year back in 2011 for the UK.

Before the band was named One Direction and the band-name took over the world, Niall had actually joked that the band should have been called “Niall and the Potatoes” We are so glad they didn’t go with that name!

The boys have Nicole Scherzinger to thank for their super-stardom and fame. It was her that originally suggested that the boys be bought back to the show in the form of a boy-group to spice things up. Well done Nicole! Clearly you have a great eye!

When Justin Bieber first followed Niall on Twitter, Niall said he actually screamed like a girl! Yes, we probably would have done too!

So there you have them – only the best interesting facts about One Direction – the biggest band to come out of the UK in a while now! With them looking to take over the world, not quite so slowly but definitely surely, it would seem that we are going to see much more of One Direction yet!